UN: Progress on childbirth safety has 'flatlined' around the world

Executive director of the UN Population Fund, Dr Natalia Kanem, says there has been 'zero progress' in saving women from preventable death in childbirths since 2016. File photo: AP/Rogelio V. Solis

Global progress in making childbirth safer for women has “flatlined” with “zero progress” since 2016, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Executive director of the UNFPA, Dr Natalia Kanem, welcomed advances in protecting rights for girls and women over the last 30 years, but warned that across many measures this progress has now “stalled completely”.

Speaking to mark the UNFPA State of World Population report for 2024, she urged: “We can and we must push forward together because that is what works.” 

Global solidarity brought improvements for women and groups such as the LGTBQI community since the pivotal 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, she stressed.

“(It is how) we reduced the unintended pregnancy rate by nearly 20% since the year 1990, it is how we reduced the maternal death rate by 34% since the year 2000, it is how we reduced new HIV infections by a third in the last 15 years,” she said.

"Yet today, that progress is slowing. By many measures it has stalled completely," she warned. Annual reductions in maternal deaths have “flatlined”, she said.

Since 2016 the world has “made zero progress” in saving women from preventable death in childbirths, she said. The report indicates around 800 women die daily while giving birth with the “vast majority” in sub-Saharan Africa.

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UNFPA estimated pregnant African woman facing complications are “around 130 times more likely to die” than a woman in Europe or north America. It also found “women of African descent across the Americas are more likely to die when giving birth than white women”.

This echoes concerns raised by women of colour in Ireland previously around how they experience maternity services. Overall the report shows a maternal mortality ratio of five deaths per 100,000 live births for Ireland. This stands at two in Holland and four in the UK.

In Ukraine this ratio is 17, in Sudan 1,223 and 443 in Sierra Leone.

“Stalling progress will turn into a reversal of progress,” Dr Kanem said.

Anxiety over high fertility rates, low fertility rates and global migration is leading to xenophobia. It’s turning women’s bodies into battlegrounds.

The report shows over half of all preventable maternal deaths occur in countries with humanitarian crises and conflicts, at “nearly 500 deaths per day” globally.

“It’s conflict and crisis that cuts women and girls off from official care, official medical care when they need it most,” she said.

“It also feeds into the inequality which is the focus of the report.” 

She added when conflict or a natural disaster occurs “women and children are the most disadvantaged, and Gaza is no exception”, making reference also to Haiti and Sudan.

Dr Kanem also urged during conflicts that "healthcare should never be a target, hospitals should never be a target, maternity centres should never be a target".

Events marking this report take place around the world including in Dublin on Thursday. This is hosted by the Irish Family Planning Association and Tánaiste Micheál Martin will speak.